It was Ho, Ho, and then Ho, Ho Ho when I was Santa

Now that we are in the month of December the enthusiasm for the Christmas season is alive here at the News Journal.

Don Estep is publisher of the News Journal.

Jennifer Perkins, one of our reporters, has gone to great lengths to provide the boys and girls in this area with a rather unique headquarters for Santa’s elf, called Newsy.

Not only has she made a Newsy elf, she has also filled one of our offices with decorations for its headquarters. You are invited to come by our office on north Main Street in Corbin and see the display. And by all means have your kids bring a letter and put it in Santa’s mailbox.

We have never had anything quite like this at our newspaper. Jennifer will be giving written reports in our newspaper each week until Christmas.

When I started my first job after college at WCTT radio station in 1961, I got the task at Christmas of reading the letters to Santa each afternoon on the radio.

I was just thinking, why me, why was I the one to play Santa? I guess I drew the short straw. Nevertheless, I put on my Santa voice and read the letters each day.

To make it sound authentic I stuck my head into a metal trash can to get a far off echo sound.

I know it sounds crazy, but trying to read letters in that way was a challenge. Everybody at the station got a kick out of it and said I made a good sounding Santa Claus.

But there was one listener that found fault with my delivery. One day she called and said, “Do you realize that your Ho, Ho Hoes are all the same?” I had not noticed that each time I would give them it was “Ho, Ho, then a rapid cadence Ho, Ho Ho.” After that call I changed the deliveries of my Ho Hoes.

It was at about this time of the year that those of us in the Lions Club would be making preparations for our televised Basket Appeal for the needy.

In the 1970s and 80s, Dale Johnson, Bill Crook and I were televising the Corbin Redhound football and basketball games on local cable. Since we had the equipment for that purpose we also used it for the Lion’s telecast.

We did most of the appeals from the Corbin Board of Education Office. Now, for the first time ever, we had two color cameras for the telecast. Back then we didn’t have to compete with satellite television and thus we had a big audience on cable.

Members of the club would handle the announcing and we would have special guest to perform for us.

I have some old video tapes of those appeals that are classics. The one I like best had Jim Page dressed up as Santa Claus and I was the MC.

Jim talked to the children as they sat on his lap and he asked them what they wanted Santa to bring them.

It was a warm Sunday afternoon and Jim says to me while talking to the children, “Donny, it is warm in here. Old Santa gonna have to get back to the north pole.”

How delightful those times were. We even had telecasts from Central Baptist Church and choirs from area churches performed for the Lion’s Appeal.

That kind of programming does not happen in today’s world but the Basket Appeal by the Lion’s Club is still going on.

The Club has set a goal of $15,000 for its 73rd consecutive year of providing food baskets to local families during the Christmas season.

If you will assist in this effort make your contribution to the Lion’s Club, P.O. Box 365, Corbin, Ky. 40702.

Like Jennifer, let us all get the enthusiasm and celebrate the Christmas season.